Deaf awareness

In the Christmas and Easter terms, a deaf teacher from Shaftesbury comes in to Canford to deliver a 2 hour session each Monday afternoon to some of our Y12 and Y13 students.  These sessions use British Sign Language (BSL) and we cover topics such as learning the BSL alphabet, your name and where you live, colours, pets, hobbies & sports and health & safety.  The aim is to become proficient in basic skills, so as to improve links between the deaf and hearing communities, whilst having fun at the same time. Without fail the students consider this a worthwhile skill to master and they enjoy the small group work - including making up and signing a story, as well as producing their own video!

 

Aims

To strengthen links between the deaf and hearing communities.

To show pupils that sign language has many similarities with traditonal languages.

Background

The head of Community Service at the time (Jerry Orme) mooted the idea of setting up a new link in April 2014.  It was agreed that this would be a worthwhile skill (especially aimed at L6 Medics) and so over the following term a suitable teacher was found and appointed.  Stephen Lintern, who was born deaf, has been teaching students in other local schools e.g. Lychett Matravers, for the past 5 years.  He is Level 2 qualified.

Resources

All teaching takes place at Canford in a language classroom.

Pupil Involvement

Between 10 and 12 6th form pupils are taught every Monday afternoon.

Frequency

Every Monday afternoon throughout the academic year.